Triple Book Slings

Do y’all remember the list I posted about all the things I wanted to finish in the nursery before the baby comes? Well, I’ve completed my first task…book slings! I first came across the idea on Pinterest and then found a tutorial here. It’s a really simple project…if you just make one. I of course had to jazz it up a bit and make three. Still a simple project, just a little more time consuming. Here is a picture of the finished product, just in case you have no idea what the heck a book sling is.

Before the book slings the wall looked like this…. cinder block shelves, a radio that is too far from a plug to work, and a random star (which I have plans for!)

Classy.

The colors in the nursery are tan, aqua, and green. I never planned on those being the colors, it just sort of slowly happened. I like it though…it works because the gender of our babies is always a surprise, so everything has to be gender neutral. Plus I’m plan on stuffing both rugrats into this room…even if they turn out to be different genders. Should be interesting. If any of you moms out in blogland have advice on having two under two share a room, please, do share!

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I’m getting off subject – back to the book slings. I wanted to make three of them (we have a lot of books) and I wanted them to all be different sizes. Books come in all different sizes, why shouldn’t book slings? I didn’t want the giant books always looking like they are going to fall out, or the tiny ones to get buried.

After crunching some numbers (and measuring a lot of books) I came up with my three sizes. (All are 39″ wide.)

Large: 42″, which would make for a 8.5″ deep final product

Medium: 36″, 7″ deep final

Small: 30″, 5.5″ deep final (re-did this one to 33″ inches later)

Here they are all cut out. (Sorry the pics are dark and horrible, I did this at night while watching Band Of Brothers.)

Next, I folded them in half (pattern sides together) and sewed along one short side, the long side, and 3/4 of the other short side. The opening is left because the next step is turning then inside out (right side out?).

Once you have them pattern side out and looking pretty, stitch closed the opening. Next I laid out my sling and dowel to make the rod pocket. I gave mine a little more room then I thought I needed and made them 2 inches. Good thing too, because I later returned these dowels and got thicker ones.

To hang the books slings you will need a set of double curtain brackets, I bought mine from Amazon (you can buy them here).

They’re beautiful and super sturdy, but when I opened the box I instantly thought “crap, I have to return them!” Why? They’re HUGE. Like way bigger than I thought they would be. They stick off the wall at least six inches. When I got back on Amazon to try and find something that would hug the wall a little more, I found that they are all that huge. Who knew? I was actually kinda relieved, I wanted this project to be done, and not be waiting on snail mail returns. I’ve got a deadline to meet!

Also, I made sure the the brackets were hung on studs. I’m sure that they would stay up fine if you used drywall anchors, but my kids (soon to be kids, eek!) are guaranteed to climb on them, so studs it is.

Once they were all hung up, I noticed a few things that were funky about it.

The top one was way too shallow (and crooked) and the dowels were already starting to bow….

I had a little leftover fabric, so I made a new top book sling, 33 inches wide instead of 30. It’s not much of a change, but just enough to make it work…and not be crooked. As for the dowels, I hadn’t cut them yet, so I decided to return them and get something thicker. I’m not sure what size they were but I can tell you that they had yellow ends. I moved up to the purple ended ones, I think they are just a little less than an inch thick.

Good thing not many men read my blog, they would be rolling their eyes at my dowel description. It’s like when men give directions, they say “take so-and-so street west, then turn south onto whatever….”. Women say, “take so-and so street till you get to the bridge, then turn right at the house with the ugly yellow trim….”

Anyway, here is the final product! I really like how it turned out, it’s very sturdy and can hold a lot of books.

Elijah (clothes-less, as usual) approves as well!

I think the best thing about these is that the books are forward facing, so Elijah can see the covers and doesn’t feel the need to pull every single book off the shelf in order to choose one for bed. Also, you could use these for so much more than books…I can see them holding magazines, files, sewing patterns, or a variety of other things.

Comments

Ash! LOVE the blog! Love it. As for the two-under-two sharing a room advice, talk to Momma English. She did it, and in my opinion, did exceptionally well! i.e. Paul and I still love each other and are friends. :)

The directions made me laugh!! That is the truth. I always give directions like that… “the house with the ugly yellow trim.” :) As for advice on room sharing, I have no idea because my 2 year old sleeps in bed with us and I'm trying to figure out where to put the newborn when he arrives in Oct.

I love that you waited to find out the sex of the baby. I considered it, but my husband can read ultrasounds, so when we went he saw the gender before the technician could even ask if we wanted to know.

These are great! I have seen something similar for sale and was thinking about how useful that would be, we use a magazine basket right now but when the kids pick up their own book it's a mess. In these when a child cleans up their books it'd look just as nice as if I did it! I like that about it. Plus you could even maybe store puzzles in bags or other toys that were similarly shaped. A variety of uses, great! I like the color scheme, it'll work nicely for both genders and as far as putting them in together I started Glory in the room with Galilee at 5-6 months. (that's just what age we do it at) and it went FAR better than I had anticipated. Galilee is not a finicky sleeper though and if Glory woke her up she must have just gone back to sleep. That's still how it is. When we were all five in a hotel room for the last two months all the babies ended up sleeping through each other's random wakings and cryings. It might be a personality thing though so I'll be praying that Elijah sleeps like a rock with the new baby in the room. :)

I am pinning this great idea! I plan on sharing it with my teacher friends…since I am the librarian at my school…I have plenty of shelves :) but not everyone lives in a library! This is a great way to keep those books in front of the young un's!

OOh! I love it!! I've been wanting to do this so bad! My good friend Audrey over at defrumpme.com did a couple, too, and she thinks I can do it. Guess I really should give it a shot. Oh, and your boy E is SO cute! I love kidlets in diapers ;-)Cute blog!Susan http://www.defrumpme.com

so adorable. I love the way the books face forward so the baby can see them. Good job! I started a link party at my blog and I'd love for you to link this up. If you're interested it's http://caribbeanmissionarywife.blogspot.com/ Have a lovely day, Maria

I've loved the book sling since the first time I saw it but you have taken it to a new brilliant level! I have 3 kids and lots of books, so this idea would fit our needs better. Thank you for the inspiration! I found you at the Cherished Bliss linky party.

This is so daggone cute! I am so smitten with bookcase alternatives like this that eliminate the need for yet another piece of furniture on my floor. This is darling, and it looks like it was quite a hit with your son too. :-)

Okay, you are AMAZING! What an awesome idea! Very clever. I love that fabric that you used! Makes me want to create something like that in my house! Thank you SO much for sharing this @ Show & Share. I bet my readers LOVED this!

These look so good! Unlike you, this is the first time I've seen them! I really think I need to make some of these for my older boys room to hold miscellaneous homework, instruction manuals…you name it! I am planning my nursery as well and have a lot to do! Only 9 more weeks to do it in!

Wow! That is a lot of books! I love the way the slings turned out and I really love that you did different sizes. You're a brilliant woman with that idea. I need to do something for my little one's books and this may be the ticket to keeping them off the floor! Thanks for sharing.

Great project and kudos to persevering and figuring it all out. It was so fun to see all the book titles you have. I way overspent on children's books when my kids were little but I have never regretted it. I still have most of them and someday, if we ever have grandchildren, I will pull them all out again.Thanks so much for sharing your project on Motivated Monday at BeColorful.Pam

That looks great! I'm pinning this for my own nursery… I've been looking for a great way to store my little man's piles and piles (and piles and piles…) of books. Also, he is constantly naked as well. So it's either normal or we have weird naked ones together. :)

Thank you, thank you, thank you! For providing a simple, cost effective to a nightly annoyance of mine. I purchsed some wooden book shelves 5 years ago – they do not hold books for nothin! Every night I growl at them. Ahhhh – relief.

Found your blog today from the Better After blog (awesome Union Jack coffee table!) and after looking around a bit I’m putting you in my favorites to check regularly. :^) We have that exact wall in my 20-month-old son’s room and I’ve been looking for a new way to put out his books…think I’ll have to look for some double rod holders!

I love that you’re a Dave Ramsey follower and also apparently a Christian. :^) God bless!

Your right on both counts…follower of Dave and Jesus! You really should make the book slings, they save me from so many messes! Elijah can see the front covers, so now he doesn’t have to pull out every.single.book to choose one for bed. There is a link withim my post to the double rod holders I used…their strength has been tested many times and they are holding up perfectly!

I’m loving this idea and I really like the hardware you choose. I’ve been looking at Wal-mart and haven’t seen any double brackets that I like. Do you have an issue with your little one pulling the dowels off the brackets? I have a 1.5 year old in a 3 year old body and wonder if this would be safe in his room.

Love it! We have an Elijah too, and I may do something like this when he moves into his big boy room! {not that that is ever happening because he will always be my baby, right? ;) }Beth@incomplete guide to living recently posted..Painter’s Remorse {Don’t let it happen to you!}

I love your project, and I love how you described men and women’s directions you are right on with that one, as far as young ones sleeping in the same room, we put them to bed a half hour before we wanted them to sleep, so they could get there giggle time over before bed time. Good luck and GOD bless.

[…] book slings are a great alternative to wood shelving. These slings, constructed by Ashley at Domestic Imperfection, are made using double curtain brackets, wooden dowels, and a length of fabric sewn with two […]